Jacopo Comin (or Robusti), usually known
as Tintoretto, was the immediate successor to Titian
(1485-1576) as the leading light of Venetian
painting during the second half of the 16th century. If Titian painted
for princes and rulers the length and breadth of Europe, Tintoretto rarely
left the city and specialized almost entirely in producing art for local
patrons. But while limited geographically, Tintoretto was certainly not
limited in his range of painting. As well as creating a number of innovative
Venetian altarpieces,
he dominated the local market for Venetian
portrait painting (commissioned by local celebrities such as sea captains,
soldiers, magistrates, and senators) and - along with Paolo
Veronese (1528-88) - was the leading contributor to Venetian
drawing of the time. All in all, it is fair to say that Tintoretto
was the most original painter working in Venice in the later 16th century.
Although Mannerism is a
difficult term to apply to Venetian art, which did not experience the
same transformations that took place in Florence and Rome, Tintoretto's
innovative and dynamic compositions, raking perspectives, shifts in scale,
and Michelangelo-style figure painting
are probably the closest that Venice gets to Mannerist
painting, in spirit if not in content. Tintoretto's ideal was to combine
the drawing (or disegno)
of Michelangelo with the colour
(or colorito) of Titian - an ambition
perfectly illustrated in the The Crucifixion. Deeply devout, Tintoretto
spent a good deal of his life creating religious
paintings for the Venetian scuole - the confraternities devoted
to charitable works, which were also significant patrons of the arts (most
of his works are still in situ in Venice).

Analysis of The
Crucifixion by Tintoretto

Tintoretto's greatest work is the huge
and complex series of fifty canvases painted between 1565 and 1587 for
the meeting rooms of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (a confraternity devoted
to combating the plague, a repeated scourge of the city.) A masterpiece
of Biblical art, they illustrate scenes
from the life of Christ and the Virgin in the upper and lower halls respectively,
and scenes from the Passion - dominated by this huge Crucifixion - in
the Sala dell' Albergo. The Crucifixion embodies a number of key
characteristics of Tintoretto's art. The teeming canvas, full of incident,
also recalls several of Veronese's monumental works - indeed, the sheer
scale of the canvases sometimes used by these artists required a wealth
of detail to fill the large area. The canvas of the Crucifixion took up
an entire wall, and to help him create his intricate series of poses and
compositions, Tintoretto made use of numerous small wax models which he
moved around and illuminated from different angles.

In conception and execution, Tintoretto's
Christ on the cross is one of the most unusual and compelling scenes of
the crucifixion of the 16th century. Instead of focusing on the individuals
directly involved in the event, the artist provides us with a panoramic
scene of Golgotha, populated by an astonishingly varied throng - including
soldiers, executioners, horsemen, tradesmen, onlookers, thieves and apostles
- engaged in all sorts of different activities and movements with almost
insect-like urgency.

In the process, he explores every aspect
of the scene. One very rare feature for Renaissance
art is the inclusion of the two thieves in the composition, one being
nailed to a cross, the other being raised. All four Gospels relate that
two thieves were crucified with Christ.

According to Luke, the one on Christ's
right rebuked the other, saying that their punishment was deserved whereas
Christ was innocent. Christ said to him, "Today you shall be with
me in Paradise." The role of the thieves clearly gave Tintoretto
a means of filling the vast canvas. But it is also true to say that all
his paintings for the Scuola emphasized the humility and mercy of Christ,
as well as his links with ordinary sinners, the poor, and the destitute,
and the story of the thieves fits nicely into this theme.

In his thought-provoking article on Tintoretto's
Crucifixion, published in "Painters on Painting" (1969),
Brian Robb states that the man who is busily securing the second thief's
cross is employing the same techniques and same type of tool (a gimlet)
that he himself had observed being used by a Venetian carpenter constructing
a jetty. This is not simply a curiosity - it underlines the extent to
which Tintoretto's work drew on the life around him, not least the balance
and lean and thrust of gondoliers, whose gestures surely inspired many
of the figures' tenuous relation to gravity. In the foreground, on the
right, is a man with his back to us, digging; perhaps he is preparing
a hole for the stake of the cross, but more particularly he serves as
a striking example of the energy being expressed across the painting.

The raising of the crosses also afforded
Tintoretto the opportunity of depicting numerous muscular individuals
in vigorous motion, testifying to his interest in the figure
drawing of Michelangelo,
while it also enabled him to introduce two strong diagonals that bring
dynamism to the scene and help to create a strong underlying structure.
In particular, the diagonals focus attention on the figure of Christ,
who is still and calm on his cross - a figure of calm amid the chaos and
turmoil below. Under a clouded sky that somehow manages to be at the same
time calm and apocalyptic, Christ's body is parallel to the picture-plane,
reinforcing the impression of stillness, and he looks with special compassion
upon the group at the foot of the cross, which includes the swooning Virgin
and also his friends. The group is beautifully painted and brought together
in a dignified and rhythmic movement.

NOTE: Christ is placed very high on the
cross, almost at the top of the scene before us. The nails piercing
his hands and feet are visible, but little is made of his suffering.
The light radiating from Christ's head has physical substance, like
wings, and though the head leans forward it is not drooping with exhaustion
but rather looking down on the scene around him. And as he watches,
so do we.

Another feature of the scene that is distinctly
Venetian is the introduction of huge numbers of people, mostly richly
dressed, who have come to witness the event. Men in armour or in luxurious
clothes and exotic headgear crowd around from all directions, turning
the episode into a spectacle. (See also Veronese's Wedding
Feast at Cana and Feast
in the House of Levi for later versions of this 'spectacle' effect.)
The horseman on the left, pointing to Christ, may be Longinus, the Roman
soldier who pierced Christ's side and was converted at that moment to
Christianity. See also the two men who offer Christ a sponge soaked in
vinegar, pretending to help slake his thirst. It is a painting that involves
the spectator in the highest degree, especially as details such as the
ladder on the left are so close to the picture-plane and to the viewer's
space. Although the Renaissance
colour palette is limited, the dusky setting, out of which emerges
a pattern of brilliant reds and whites, is reminiscent of some of Titian's
early works and is almost certainly designed to take account of the lighting
of the room. After Tintoretto's death, Venice had to wait for Giambattista
Tiepolo (1696-1770) before it had a master of such stature again.